Time to have your democratic say ... if it's worth the effort (Politics Books in general)

Member Name: opinions4u

Product:	Politics Books in general
Date:	16/04/03 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Voting gives you a chance to change thing, Look at the people of Iraq - they wish they could have had a free vote!

Disadvantages: The choice is depressingly poor qulaity

It is nearly local election time again. Despite people dying to give us the right, it is anticipated that as many as 75% of those eligible to vote will fail to do so.

So, what is on offer from the parties locally in 2003?

It is likely that you have a Labour candidate. Labour is the party of local government. They have dominated urban councils for 20 years. As well as the wilder side of politics in the eighties (Derek Hatton in Liverpool and Ken Livingstone in London), you have probably just experienced a massive rise in your council tax. Strangely, the biggest rises tend to be in southern areas where there are fewer labour councils, but even in their northern heartlands rises 3 or 4 times the rate of inflation have just been implemented. As a direct result of the Labour Government. I am yet to see any evidence of local services improving, despite successive rises in excess of inflation.

The Liberal Democrats are a popular lot at local election time. Their influence in the town halls has become significant of late. They wriggle their way in to school governor roles and are probably the main torch carriers of the increasingly ridiculous politically correct world that we live in. They actually run my local authority which has seen huge rises in spending with zero improvements in service. The cost of running the council itself has doubled, as allowances and committee meetings have rocketed. They love a committee. The chance to vote on putting road humps and double yellow lines on an estate that doesn't want them is a favourite past time of the locally active Liberal. It is amazing how you always get their "regular" Focus newsletter in April every year, but never at any other time! And their total failure to improve recycling locally, despite promises made, switches me off.

Conservatives. Getting stronger in local representation, but only because what used to be their natural power base has died as their me
mbership has aged, so they are improving from a low base. If I actually knew what the Conservatives stood for these days, I might actually consider voting for them. But internal division, a hint of smugness and a complete lack of presence locally make them a difficult horse to back. The nation needs a strong opposition in Parliament and a worthwhile alternative locally. No sign yet.

Green. They once commanded 15% of the vote in Euro elections, but the Greens have become a fairly insignificant lot again since. One Manchester candidate is called Elvis Aaron Presley. Supporting the notion that they are a bunch of loons. While a lot of Green politics is eminently sensible (reducing household waste, encouraging use of bicycles), it then also touches on the ridiculous, almost suggesting we should go back to the Stone Age industrially. A mainstream party that genuinely embraces some of the more sensible Green policies could well become the successful political party of the 21st Century. Little practical evidence from any of them yet.

British National Party. Read any of their literature (they regrettably are active locally, so I do) and they will produce a brilliant piece of work pointing out the wasteful and politically correct work done by your locally elected representatives. They will show you how your local council has acted in the name of the minority, and totally ignored the basic services they are meant to deliver to the majority. In many of these cases, they are totally right. But then read between the lines. They are pulling on strings that they know will irritate the silent majority in to voting against the mainstream. They are twisting reality; just a tiny bit, to wind you up. It is clever. But it is also dangerous. My town was hit by rioting a couple of years ago. Stirred up by the BNP and other agitators. They are a nasty, insidious lot, feeding off peoples' weaknesses to whip up racial hatred. Our mainstream parties
need to find the strength to deal with the genuine issues, to ensure that the BNP disappears from politics forever.

So there you have it. It is a poor choice. I urge you to vote anyway. Who for? You decide. But by exercising your right to vote you may actually strengthen the resolve of local politicians to act in your interests, instead of pocketing their fat allowances and pursuing irrelevant agendas that benefit nobody. And you may jolt national politicians in to raising their performance because, at the end of the day, these people represent YOU.

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